Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them: go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Moses moves immediately from receiving the divine instruction to delivering it to the elders — the exact structure of covenantal transmission God established in Exodus 3:16. The elders are the intermediate layer between the divine command and the household, between the national leadership and the family unit. The command to go at once — mishku, draw out or take — suggests urgency. There is no time for extended deliberation; the tenth plague comes at midnight, and the lamb must be selected, slaughtered, and applied before then. The Passover is not a ceremony of leisure; it is a liturgy of urgency, the worship of people who are about to be set free and know it.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse